According to trade data collected from the national customs authorities, Chinese exports of tomato paste in the last quarter of 2024 (329,000 t) were more than 46,000 tonnes (metric, t) lower than in the last quarter of 2023 (375,000 t); this decline curbs a growth dynamic that takes the result in volumes for the 2024 Q4 quarter to 19% (+52,000 t) above the average for the corresponding quarters of the previous three years.
This is not a uniform, general trend. In terms of regional markets, some destinations have been more affected than others: the Middle East (Iraq, Saudi Arabia), the Western EU (Italy, Portugal) and the Far East (Thailand, Indonesia), three of the five most important regions in terms of outlets for the Chinese processing industry, posted the most significant withdrawals in the fourth quarter of 2024: the cumulative decline recorded in these three regions reached more than 90,000 t, and almost 93,000 t for all destinations studied.
Conversely, other regional markets recorded significant increases, though not to the extent of the downturns seen in Europe and the Middle East. The most noteworthy developments concerned exports to markets in Eurasia (Russia, Kazakhstan), the Eastern EU (Poland, Croatia) and South and Central America (Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic), to name but the most spectacular. The total increase between 2023 Q4 and 2024 Q4 amounted to just over 46,000 t.
Some complementary data
Over the period under review (2023 Q4 / 2024 Q4), revenues from Chinese exports of tomato paste fell by 40%, from almost 440 million USD in the last quarter of 2023 to just 263 million USD in the last quarter of 2024. The markets most affected by this decline are in the Middle East, the Western EU, the Far East and West Africa.
Source: Trade Data Monitor.